The book deals with the relationship between Friedrich Meinecke, who is often considered to be the leading German historian of the first half of the twentieth century, and several of his students who, after the Nazi seizure of power, were forced to emigrate because of their Jewish descent or their political views. The letters published here to Meinecke from Hans Rothfels, Dietrich Gerhard, Hajo Holborn, Felix Gilbert, Hans Rosenberg, and others show these scholars' deep respect for their old teacher, but also their growing distance from his historical interests and methods. In a period of struggle between democracy and Nazi dictatorship, the letters address the problems of emigration and remigration, German-Jewish and German-American identity, and historiography in both Germany and the United States.

The essays in An Interrupted Past describe the fate of those German-speaking historians who fled from Nazi Europe to the United States. Their story is set into several contexts: the traditional relationship between German and American historiography, the evolution of the German historical profession in the twentieth century, the onset of Nazi persecution after 1933, the special situation in Austria, and the difficulty of settling the refugees in their new homeland. In addition to articles on prominent scholars, there are accounts of the group as a whole, including information on more than ninety individuals, and of their family lives. An Interrupted Past is set in one of the darkest periods in human history, a time of political catastrophe and personal suffering. Yet the lives recorded here also illustrate people's capacity to survive, adjust, and create under difficult circumstances.

Includes entries for maps and atlases.

This new edition of a best-selling history of Germany, originally published in 1976, includes the great watershed of 1989-90 and its aftermath. With twelve maps, a chronology of events, and an updated bibliographical essay, Germany: A Short History provides a thorough introduction to German history from antiquity to the present.